Ett av de mest givna köpen det här året. "CD 1 features the original album + an unreleased acoustic instrumental titled "Interlude," 3 new songs from the band's unfinished second album with newly recorded vocals and lyrics by Mark Lanegan and a remixed version of the band's John Lennon cover "I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier."
CD 2 features the full audio set from the bands historical performance at the Moore Theater in Seattle on April 29, 1995, remastered in stereo sound.
The DVD features the first official DVD release of Live at The Moore - Mad Season's last show ever performed. Not only has Live at The Moore been remixed and remastered, but newly edited by director Duncan Sharp for a beautiful new documentary-like presentation, giving the show an updated look as if the viewer were in room that night. Also included are four performances that have never been seen, including the fan-favorite "Wake Up."
Also featured is a full concert of the bands performance from New Years Eve 1995 at RKCNDY in Seattle (which was shot by the band's crew for an up close and intimate look at the band) and both performances from Self-Pollution Radio, one newly edited.
Disc 3 (DVD)
1. Lifeless Dead (Live at The Moore)
2. River Of Deceit (Live at The Moore)
3. Long Gone Day (Live at The Moore)
4. I Don't Know Anything (Live at The Moore)
5. X-Ray Mind (Live at The Moore)
6. All Alone (Live at The Moore)
7. November Hotel (Live at The Moore)
8. Wake Up (Unseen Footage from The Moore)
9. Artificial Red (Unseen Footage from The Moore)
10. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier (Unseen Footage from The Moore)
11. I'm Above (Unseen Footage from The Moore)
12. Wake Up (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
13. Lifeless Dead (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
14. River Of Deceit (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
15. I Don't Know Anything (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
16. I'm Above (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
17. Artificial Red (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
18. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
19. All Alone (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
20. November Hotel (Live at The RCKNDY -NYE Show 1995)
21. Lifeless Dead (Self Pollution Radio Broadcast)
22. I Don't Know Anything (Self Pollution Radio Broadcast (new edit))
23. River Of Deceit (Music Video)"/Niclas

måndag 25 februari 2013

Intervju med Spike och Griff i The Quireboys.

Ringer bandets manager Paul och bestämmer tid för en kort intervju. När jag anländer till Akkurat strax efter sju, är bandet ännu inte på plats. Det blir lite barhäng och en öl i väntan på Spike och herrarna. När jag väl leds in i den trånga logen, möts jag av en högst förvånad Spike som inte verkar veta något om vår bokade pratstund. Det är dock inga problem utan Spike kränger på sig bootsen och ber mig sitta ner. Bordet är belamrat med glas och flaskor och det luktar gammal fylla om både bandet och det lilla rummet. Att The Quireboys gillar att ta sig ett glas eller två, är nog ett understatement. Nåväl, det blir några snabba frågor som besvaras glatt med många skratt.I know you´re working on a new album. I found some titles like “Troublemaker”, “Gotta get a message to you” and “Some kind of outlaw”, are these songs that will be on the album?
Spike: We´ve been working on them and we´ve demoed seven so far. You should speak to Griff because he´s the best one at this. (laughs) I´ve been very busy over the past few months. Had a bit of an accident. Do you wanna tell him Griff?
Griff: There´s about 20 songs to pick from and we´ve got a song called “Crying out loud” and there´s a song called “Beautiful curse” and “Mother Mary”, which we´re gonna play tonight and “Too much of a good thing”, which we´re playing as well. It´s about 20 songs and we´re hoping for the next month or so.
When do you reckon it will be done?
Spike: We´re looking at having it released in May, aren´t we?
Griff: Yeah at the beginning of May. We´ve got a release party in Ibiza.
Spike: Are you coming?
Absolutely! (laughs) If I had the time and the money I´d be there in a heartbeat.
Spike: I´m sure we can fly you in there. (laughs)
Why has it taken five years since the last album?
Spike: Basically, we´ve been touring all the time.
Griff: Since “Homewreckers and heartbreakers” (2009), we´ve had a live album and “Halfpenny dancer”, which were some new songs but mainly acoustic versions of songs. This will be the first studio album I suppose, with all new material. We´ve just been on the road so much but things are gonna change from now on. When we´ve done this record, hopefully we´ll be back in the studio before the end of the year to do another one. No one can really afford to not put albums out regularly now. I think you really need to do one album a year at least.
Spike: This album would´ve been finished, but my girlfriend broke her neck so everything got put on hold for a while. A very traumatic time.
Sorry to hear. Is she ok?
Spike: Not nearly but she´s getting there. Plus we´ve just gotten back from Brazil and Argentina and we´ve been playing nonstop all over the place, but of course everything stopped when that happened.
Terrible to hear. These two shows in Sweden so far, all good?
Spike: Yeah, brilliant! They´ve been really good.
You´re playing everywhere. It´s nine dates all together. It´s like the good old days, isn´t it?
Spike: (laughs) Yeah yeah! We´ll be fine. We just thought we´d get out there and over the next few days we´re gonna be playing some more new material.
Ok. Do you have plans for anymore solo albums or stuff like that?
Spike: Well, I think the guys have been doing another Down ´N´Outz thing with Joe Elliott. I just finished off an album with Frankie Miller songs and it should be out this year some time. It´s with Simon Kirk, Andy Fraser, Ronnie Wood and Ian Hunter and I´m doing a duet with Bonnie Tyler and the guys are playing on it as well.
Nice. How´s Bonnie Tyler doing?
Spike: Oh, the song sounds great. She´s brilliant!
An old thing. When your first album came out, while recording it, did you have a feeling that it might get some attention? Did you feel you had the songs?
Spike: The thing is, I started the band like in 1984 and doing the transit van for years and then luckily in ´88 or ´89 we got our record deal. It was just being in the right place at the right time, but it was a lot of hard work to get there, you know. We got to go to LA and Phil Mogg was looking out for us and we got the gig with Guns N´Roses. We were just about to split up at that point, because we did five or six years before that. Then we sold out every venue in England and it just shows you the difference and how things have changed.
You lived in LA for a while, didn´t you?
Spike: yeah, when we stopped playing. We stopped playing for a few years. Griff moved there, Nigel (Mogg) moved to New York and we just had a rest from touring.
Any crazy Hollywood parties?
Spike: Many. (laughs) Too many to mention. I used to live with CC Deville for god´s sake! The house of horrors! (laughs) I might as well have lived there since I was there every day. We had some good times, yeah. (laughs)
Figures. You started out as The Queerboys and I read that there was some controversy surrounding that name. Was it really that? Was it in England?
Spike: Yeah. We were banned from every university.
Just because of the name?
Spike: Yeah. Originally it was gonna be The Choirboys and then someone said “Oh, you should be called the fucking Queerboys!” and we said “Great!”, but the funny thing was that when we got banned, we really didn´t get all the attention till after we were signed and then it all came out. Just one of them things, you know. It´s funny, because there´s an Australian band called The Quireboys and I remember meeting one of them… at the time Sharon Osbourne was managing us and she offered them… it´s a generic name and you can´t copyright it and they had an album in the Billboard chart before us in America and we actually offered them 50 grand and they refused. Years later I see the guy and he says “Fuck man! I wish I took the money because we got dropped two weeks later.”. (laughs)
Great story! Before a show like this none tonight, do you get nervous?
Spike: I always get nervous. Like five minutes before. You gotta get the blood rushing, you know what I mean? We´re doing two sets tonight and we haven´t done that before. We´re gonna do one for 40 minutes and then come off and then go back on. We´ll see what happens. We haven´t done that since we´ve been in New York. A matinee show and an evening show.
Ok. Well, thank you!
Spike: Thank you!
/Niclas

Jag har gjort väldigt många intervjuer, men har nog aldrig varit med om att de skett på exakt utsatt tid. Klockan slår 8 på kvällen och på sekunden ringer en kvinna från skivbolaget upp och berättar att Josh är redo för intervjun. Ett mindre minus är att det är nästan omöjligt att höra vad Josh säger. Vi skriver 2013, men fortfarande kan man få uppleva telefonsamtal som om det vore 1983. Det låter som om Josh befinner sig i ett litet ljudisolerat rum långt under mark i New Orleans, dit den pågående turnén med Kid Rock fört honom för dagen. Att inte höra vad den andre personen säger gör alltid en intervju väldigt svår att genomföra.Josh berättar bland annat om nya albumet "Confessions", en kommande kortfilm och hur dotterns födelse förändrade hans liv.Hey Josh, how are you?
Josh Todd: Great. How´s it going?Pretty good. How´s the tour been going?
Josh Todd: Good. We´re in New Orleans and we´ve got a show tonight. It´s a really great package with Kid Rock.Touring with Kid Rock, do you have a similar audience?
Josh Todd: Yeah, we do have a similar audience. He came out around the same time as we did and we´ve known each other for a while. He´s doing a great job of mixing all these different genres like rap, rock and country. It´s a really good show and he´s got a really big band and they don´t run tracks, they´re a real live band. It´s cool.About your new album (Confessions), what are your confessions?
Josh Todd? My confessions are so many, but one is that I have a very good time with moderation.So it´s not as it says in the song "Gluttony", “I drink too much and I fuck too much”?
Josh Todd: Well yeah, I did all of that too much. I´ve had alcohol addiction, drug addiction, sex addiction, sugar and everything.
Ok. What made you write about the seven deadly sins?
Josh Todd: Because it´s timeless and like I said, I´ve struggled with moderation my whole life along with other things. I think everybody have things and I think everybody struggles with addiction at some point in their lives and they have to moderate. It´s difficult because if something feels good, you just wanna keep doing it.
Being in the business that you are, it must be much more difficult doing things in moderation since you come across a lot of this all the time?
Josh Todd: Yeah, but when you´re on the other side of it… I´ve been sober for 18 years and when you see people doing stuff, it´s not attractive, you know. You see things from a different perspective and it´s not very attractive, so it´s not that hard.
How long did you work on the album and then all these bonus tracks, are those tracks that the record company pushes you to come up with so they have bonus stuff for the different releases?
Josh Todd: Well yeah, there´s always the bonus tracks and that´s kind of a given for every band. We always write more than enough songs for a record. We always have songs laying around that didn´t make the cut and they are used as bonus tracks.
Do you ever go back and use old stuff or is it always completely new stuff for a new record?
Josh Todd: No, sometimes we go back and use stuff that weren´t a part of the writing cycle. Like for “15”, “Crazy bitch” had been written a couple of years before that.
All the so called controversy surrounding that song and the video, didn´t that just turn out to be great publicity for the band in a way?
Josh Todd: The controversy wasn´t that big, but yeah… bad press is good press.
Looking back on the first album back in ´99, how would you compare the band today to the band back then? Besides being older and wiser and so on.
Josh Todd: Well, it´s been a different line up but this line up is the one we always wanted. We´ve been together now for eight years and we´ve done over a thousand shows and we still get along really great. It was just a different band for those first two records.
Being on the road and you spend a lot of time together, is it hard staying good friends or does it just come easy? You see each other all the time. Is there a lot of friction?
Josh Todd: Nah, there´s no friction. I mean, you do get tired being around each other and that´s just normal. The key is that when something is bother us, we just talk it out and that´s what we do. We get right to the point when it happens. If you have problems and they itch for too long, they become bigger than they originally were when they started and that´s when you start not getting along. We just address things when they come up and we have a good time.
Cool. The video for “Gluttony”, whose idea was it to do it in a church environment and all that?
Josh Todd: That was us. This band comes from all of that and it´s a contradiction that we thought would be great. We´ve got our own Jesus there and our whole band in there, so it was a fun shoot.
You´ve done a lot of videos. Is it still fun and is there a need for videos these days?
Josh Todd: Yeah, it´s another marketing tool, but it´s not like it used to be of course. There´s not a forum for it, but you can´t control the market anymore because there´s the world wide web. There´s no MTV and you don´t have to wait for a record, you just get on the internet and get it. They have access to their artist from their rooms. It´s just a much different world than it used to be so you just have to roll with that and deal with it accordingly. We always concentrate on making records.
When you sit down to write songs for an album, is there ever the thought of writing a song that could make it onto radio or don´t you think about that at all?
Josh Todd: Well yeah, we wanna write songs that are unforgettable and I think a hit song is unforgettable and that´s why it becomes a hit. Everybody likes it and it resonates with them and they remember it and wanna hear it again. When you hear a Buckcherry record, we always have big hooks and that´s something we´re always into, so if it doesn´t move us it doesn´t go on the record.
How do you look at a song like “Lit up” today?
Josh Todd: I love that song and we wrote it so fast so long ago. I think we wrote that song in like an hour, but it´s a good one and we play it every night and it´s awesome.
That´s gotta be a pretty cool feeling, to write something in an hour and a few months later people are singing along to it on tour?
Josh Todd: Yeah that´s a big pay off. You´re right. You spend all this time creating songs in a dark rehearsal room and then you´re over in Europe or Japan and people know your songs and that´s when it all comes together.
Did the rock and roll lifestyle turn out to be the way you expected it to be?
Josh Todd: No. What people don´t know is that it´s a lot of work. There´s a lot of sacrifice, a lot of travelling and it´s very isolating actually.
You became a father when you were 23. Did that in any way stand in your way of doing what you were doing? Did you sacrifice family in any way?
Josh Todd: I sacrificed a lot. It motivated me, because at that time in my life (when he became a father) I was in a bad place. I had a massive alcohol and drug problem at the time. I had no money, so my first child, my daughter, was a turning point for me in getting my life together. I didn´t want her to see me fucked up, like I experienced when I was a kid so that was a big motivating factor. All it did was make me get better as an artist. I always tell her that, that she was the turning point.Cool. Last couple of questions. The stuff you recorded or demoed with what would later become Velvet Revolver, did any of that end up on the Velvet Revolver records?
Josh Todd: No, never recorded them for real and they never ended up anywhere.
So that stuff is just sitting in a vault somewhere?
Josh Todd: I don´t even have those. Maybe Keith (Nelson) does? He was part of all that too. I have to talk to him. I don´t even remember what songs they were. They weren´t fully developed. They were just recording ideas and stuff, but there´s some stuff there.
The way it ended, was that something that really pissed you off?
Josh Todd: We worked together for about a month and taking management meetings and it was starting to become more and more of something and then Slash abruptly pulled the plug and that was it. I wasn´t mad, but I felt like it was wasting my time and I didn´t like that. I understand if you don´t wanna go forward with somebody because of whatever reason, that´s fine, but don´t beat around the bush. Say what you´re doing and move on, no big deal. There´s no hard feelings and I´ve talked to him since then and it was a long, long time ago and a short period of time.You´ve lived an interesting life and you´ve obviously had your ups and downs. Everybody´s writing books these days, has that ever crossed your mind?
Josh Todd: Yeah, I was writing a screen play on my life when we started doing “Confessions” and I condensed it into a short movie and we´re trying to get it funded right now. But yeah, at some point I´d like to write a book. I had an interesting upbringing and there´s a lot of cool stories. A lot of stuff that people don´t know about. I wanna do an honest book.
That movie will be based on your life then?
Josh Todd: It´s loosely based on a period in my life.
And it will be out when?
Josh Todd: We gotta get it funded but we already have a director and a cast and location. We have no idea how much money it will cost, but it´s a lot. I´m actually working on it right now. Hopefully we´re gonna couple it with a great live performance DVD and they´ll get the movie as well. It´ll be great for the band and we´ll put it out later on this year. That´s what we´re working on.Nice. What´s the plan after the Kid Rock tour? Anything planned for Europe?
Josh Todd: Yes there are. We´re working on that right now. We just did a few shows in the UK last November. We´re coming back and we´re already on Download and we´ll do a tour around that with a particular artist and hopefully it will come through and we can announce it.
Good. I saw you here when you played with Disturbed a few years back.
Josh Todd: Yeah, that was fun.
Well, have a great night in New Orleans!
Josh Todd: Thanks man, appreciate it. /Niclas

söndag 17 februari 2013

Intervju med Biff Byford i Saxon.

Saxon tillhör den där skaran band som ihärdigt släpper nya album och turnerar jorden runt, utan en tanke på att slå sig till ro. Snart ligger deras 20:e giv, "Sacrifice", på en skivdisk nära dig och därför kändes det självklart att ringa upp Biff för en liten pratstund.Efter strul med vilken tid som egentligen gällde, når jag honom i bilen, i en skog, på sin mobil. Jag hör knappt vad han säger och Biff är ganska fåordig denna dag, så det är kanske inte den bästa intervjun, men ändock en intervju.Det blev bland annat snack om nya plattan, att stå i kö och hur han kom att kallas Biff.How are you?
Biff: I´m good.
How does it feel to be done with your 20th album?
Biff: It´s alright. Everybody seems to like it, which is always a good relief.
Did you produce it and Andy Sneap mixed it?
Biff: Yeah, I produced it myself and Andy mixed it. It´s a vindication of my production.
Right. It was never the plan for Andy to produce it?
Biff: No, no never. It was me producing. Andy´s a great mix engineer anyway and I know he works a bit more with Accept, but not with Saxon. He might produce the next album, who knows? Nothing´s carved in stone. I just wanted to do it myself this time. I´ve co-produced a lot of albums and I just wanted to do it myself.
Was there any song on the album that was harder to get right than others?
Biff: I think “Guardians of the tomb” was quite hard. “Made in Belfast” sounds very hard but was quite easy and different in style. It was fairly easy really. I think the difficult part was writing the songs, as it always is and finding a bunch of songs that people will really like.
That first instrumental track “Procession”, was that something you just ended up with or was it the plan from the beginning to start off with something like that?
Biff: No, we wanted to start it off with some sort of intro. I think the title sort of deserves a bit of an intro to the whole thing. “Sacrifice” was one of the early songs we wrote right after the idea for the title. We wrote the track and then Nigel wrote the beginning on his keyboards and we specifically wrote that part for “Sacrifice” and it was always intended to be like that.
Cool. I read that you were kind of thinking of perhaps doing a solo album. Is that a serious idea?
Biff: Well, it´s just me thinking of what to do next really. It depends on the rest of the guys. We´re gonna be touring pretty hard this year and we worked really hard on the album last year. I don´t want to sort of drag the band into another album really quickly so… You know, I´m always working so it´s no big deal for me to write ten songs and if they will end up on the next Saxon album or on some other project, I don´t know.
You also said that you kinda wanted to get that “747” and “Wheels of steel” kinda sound?
Biff: Well, I just suggested that that´s maybe the type of songs I would go to write on. Not really a sound but a song style, because we´ve become quite heavy in the last ten or twelve years, so it might be nice to go back and be more melodic rock.
I was thinking that bands like KISS and Van Halen have both gone for more of that vintage sound. Is that something you´d consider?
Biff: Probably not. (laughs) I like writing music, not rehashing old stuff. We do re-record stuff, but that´s mostly for fun really and for fans. For our fans to listen to our songs in different formats really. With this album I wanted to bring the power of our sound. I didn´t want the album to be over produced in terms of slick harmonies and choirs and keyboards. I wanted it to be an intense Saxon experience. A couple of songs are more thrashy rock, you know what I mean, like “Motorcycle man” and “To hell and back again”. More sort of thrashy music, really.
My first thought after listening to it was that it´s really heavy.
Biff: Yeah and I brought back a live element to the album and live we´re very heavy. There´s no ballad on this album either. We don´t really have a relaxing track, if you know what I mean? On the last album we had a couple of slow songs on there, but this one there´s no real let up. It´s just full on.The last song on the album, “Standing in a queue”, what´s that all about?
Biff: It´s a bit of a tongue in cheek song really, about people who travel for a living and just fucking waiting in a queue. It´s a bit of a wild horse song and a throwback to the 80´s I suppose and bit like “Strong arm of the law”. It´s a story about us being stuck in bloody queue all our lives, like traffic and airports. The world is a queue so I thought I´d write a song about it. I tend to write lyrics about things other people don´t write about, so I suppose in that respect, it´s a bit unique.
Well, Swedes are known for standing in line waiting for the bus and such things.
Biff: (laughs) same as the fucking Indians. It´s a song that resonates with people who do as their told and stand in queue. It´s not a rebel song, you know what I mean? “I´m not standing in that fucking queue any longer!” (laughs) and if anybody pushes we kill them, right? If anybody pushes towards the front we fucking rip them to pieces. (laughs)
After all these years and all the albums, you´re voice is still pretty amazing live. Other singers who´s been doing it for just as long are struggling with their voices. How do you keep your voice in shape?
Biff: I don´t really. To tell you the truth, I don´t really keep it in shape. For a start I don´t drink spirits because that can really burn your throat. If I get shitfaced and I tend to go shitfaced on wine or something like that… and I stopped smoking some 20 odd years ago and I don´t really do anything. I´m just aware of that I have a voice and I suppose that helps.
I´ve always wondered, the name Biff, when was the first time that came about?
Biff: My brother was called Biff in school so I suppose they always talked about Biff Jr or Biff Smallbiff, for the brother of Biff. Then my brother left school at the time I started so I sort of acquired his nickname and it stuck really.
Alright. Have you ever thought about writing anymore books?
Biff: Well, somebody asked me the other day about it. I suppose I could write a second edition like a part two, which people sometimes do. I have tried actually, to get the band to sort of write some pages for a book. I´ve interviewed them but usually I end up answering all the questions for them. (laughs)
You´re playing Sweden Rock Festival again. You must be one of the bands who have played there the most? You and Motörhead.
Biff: Yeah, but I think Motörhead probably more. I think it´s their local gig. It´s a great festival and it´s important for them for the audience to enjoy themselves and I suppose we´re one of those bands. We´re bringing a bigger production this time and doing a little bit of a different setlist so it´ll be a bit different than the last time. It´s nice of them to ask us really. I think Sweden Rock Festival and Saxon have a little bit of a special atmosphere together.
It kinda goes hand in hand these days.
Biff: Well, so it should. Not a lot of people know this, but in the 80´s the UK and Sweden were our biggest selling countries around “Wheels of steel”. A lot of people think it was Germany, but actually it was Sweden. Germany came along around “Strong arm of the law”.
Final thing. What was it like growing up in Honley, Yorkshire?
Biff: It was a very small town. I didn´t stay there that long but my family live there still. It´s a nice town and sort of an old textile town. It´s next to a river, so it´s a nice place.
Did you get into bands there or was that later on?
Biff: It was later on when I was living in Barnsley in my early teens, I suppose.
Ok. I was checking out your tour schedule for last year and you did something like 115-120 gigs. Is this year´s tour gonna be as massive?
Biff: Probably. (laughs) We start in March and maybe finish around Christmas some time. All the dates are being added together now. We´re pretty good till April, June and I think Sweden Rock is the first show on the continent. It should be good. We´re definitely coming back after the summer.
Any countries you know of now that you´ve never played before?
Biff: No, not right now. China we´ve never played so…
Saxon in China would be cool.
Biff: Yeah! I think in the early days when rock and roll first went there, they didn´t understand the scales. The music´s strange because they don´t have the same scales as us. I think it sounded out of tune for them, but it´s changed a lot in the last ten years obviously. Maybe we should go there and Saxonize it?Absolutely. Just one more thing I thought of. “Luck of the draw”, which is a bonus track for the iTunes release, having bonus tracks is that something that comes from the record company?
Biff: It´s in our contract that we have to have one track for iTunes or vinyl. For us it makes no difference. It was a bit of a tossup really. We had two songs that were basically the same tempo, “Luck of the draw” and “Standing in a queue”. I think the band wanted to put “Luck of the draw” on the album but I wanted the more tongue in cheek song and I got my way because I was the producer. (laughs)Ok. Thanks a lot Biff!
Biff: Ok, see you later!/Niclas

För tredje gången har jag ringt upp den alltid så trevlige Jeff Scott Soto. Han har en av de absolut bästa rösterna i branschen och har jobbat med allt och alla. Efter att först ha misstagit mig om att det snöat i LA, baserat på en bild från Carmine Appices Facebook, berättar Jeff att nämnde trummis faktiskt bor på samma gata som honom. Jeff är just nu aktuell med W.E.T. som snart släpper en förbannat bra platta, men vi kom även att bl a snacka om TSO, en kommande e-bok och den lille men store mannen Prince. How are you doing Jeff?
JSS: I´m doing great man. A little tired, but that´s all par for the course. It´s a crazy time at the moment and it´s my fault for multitasking and thinking I can be Superman at the same time.First of all, congratulations on a great sounding W.E.T. album!
JSS: Thank you man! I appreciate that.The sound and production is just splendid. There´s one track that stands out for me and that´s “Bad boy”.
JSS: Awesome! It´s funny because that song almost didn´t make it on the album because the record company hated it.
You´re kidding?
JSS: We actually wanted to open the album with it because it´s such a strong rocker type of thing and we didn´t wanna open the album with more of a commercial song, but we lose those battles when it comes to the sequencing of the album, sadly. As far as we´re concerned, we´re happy that it actually made the cut and was able to stay on the album.Strange. I love that song!
JSS: Yeah and so did we and it´s just amazing to me how many different opinions and different favorites you get from different people. You just never know. It´s one of those things where a song can be somebody´s absolute worst pick and somebody´s favorite on an album and vice versa. Some people will hate one of the ballads or one of the songs they chose a s a single. Who knows anymore? (laughs)True. What were their reason for not liking it?
JSS: I don´t know. They never really gave one. They felt maybe that it wasn´t strong enough. They kinda felt that way with a lot of the heavier songs. I think they were hoping that the album would be more mainstream and that´s not what we´re all about. Even on the first album, there are bits on the album that are commercial and mainstream, but they´re still quite heavy as far as the guitars and the overall riff and the groove. We try to find a nice balance of being able to come across as a heavy band without sounding too mainstream and too AOR. I think it´s a nice balance because you still get that kinda commercial feel with the keyboards and the choruses and all that, but you still also have the balls behind it.
Absolutely. I think you´ve done very well. What was it like working on this album compared to the first one? Was it harder or easier coming up with stuff?
JSS: Well, it was easier in the sense that we had a foundation to go by. Having the first album, we kinda knew where we were gonna take it from, but on the other hand we didn´t wanna repeat ourselves. The first album was more individually based, the ideas and the overall songs came about individually, whereas on the second album we wanted to do it more collaboratively and to make sure that we were all involved in it. That´s one of the biggest differences between the two albums. There was a big pressure at the beginning, "How are we gonna follow up with this since there was so much hype and buzz from the first album? How are we gonna match this?". We finally just had to calm each other down and say “Ok, hang on a second! We made the first album without thinking too hard on it and we have to go into the second album the same way. We just have to do what we do and let it just come together on its own as opposed to thinking too much.”. I think that´s what we did.Cool. I know you filmed the show in Stockholm. Have you taken a look at the footage?
JSS: I haven´t seen the footage yet and I just heard the actual audio for the first time yesterday, but damn it sounds good! When you´re doing it and especially since this band has no real history yet as a band, we don´t know what´s going on when we´re up there. We´re just kinda looking at each other going “I hope this is good and I hope we´re getting through this ok?”. It´s not until we actually get to settle down and let some time pass and then we listen back and go “Damn, this is actually pretty good!”. Overall we´re extremely happy with it and I can´t wait to see the footage that´s gonna match the audio that they´re starting to mix now.
Is this just gonna be a DVD release or is there gonna be a live CD version too?
JSS: I think the plans are, and maybe I´m talking ahead of myself here, maybe it´s something they wanna be able to discuss, but I think the idea is to release the DVD with the audio CD included. I think they learned their lesson and I actually came up with the idea on my last live album and DVD. I told them “I think it´s silly to put out a live audio CD separately. They can just mark it up a tiny bit and put the audio CD in there for people who do wanna listen to it.. I don´t think there´s enough people that wanna just put the live show in their car or rip it to their iPods, enough to actually sell a CD of it. But I think it´ll be a nice little extra to put it into the actual DVD.”. They went “No, no, no we´re gonna sell it separately blah, blah, blah…” and I think they didn´t sell too many. Maybe enough DVD´s but not enough audio. This time around we´re gonna do it this way, but there´s also some additional bonus tracks that were left over from this album and they´re gonna end up on that audio CD. They were songs that we were very happy with and felt very strongly about, but they didn´t make the cut.You also shot a video when you were over here. Out in the cold, right?
JSS: (laughs) Yes we did. We actually shot two of them, but the second one is still being worked on right now. The first one was “Learn to live again” and man it was cold! Not only that. The original idea was for me to be landing on Friday evening and then we´d start filming around noon or something on Saturday, until they called me two days before I was leaving, saying “Well Jeff, sadly all the places we were gonna be filming and the locations etc, fell through and the only place where we can do this is gonna take us four hours to drive to and we have to leave at seven o´clock in the morning.”, so I literally landed and got settled in my room in Stockholm around 11.30 at night and then had to be up and ready by seven o´clock in the morning to start driving for four hours to that industrial cold barn.The rock and roll lifestyle.
JSS: Welcome to Stockholm! (laughs)Doing a video, is that mostly the record company pushing for it? is there really a need for it? It only gets shown on YouTube I guess?
JSS: Exactly. I just look at it as a little extra promotion item and as you said, it´s not gonna be played on video channels and such, but you never know. I mean, there´s still bands out there doing videos, hard rock videos and such and there are still outlets out there playing these things. Of course, with a little video budget, there´s very little that we can up with as far as ideas, locations and how far we can go with it but we just tried to make the best of it with what we had. As you said, it´s only gonna really apiece people on YouTube, but there´s a lot of people on there that might check out the band even accidentally than would know of the band and that gives us a little more influence I guess out there.What are your plans right now? I was reading on your Facebook page and I kinda got the feeling that you had some time off. What are your plans for the next couple of months?
JSS: I wish. (laughs) I´m collaborating on a couple of things with several people and I´ll leave that open because I´m constantly working on things with people, but I´m basically working on a couple of session type things. I´m working on something that´s another special new CD item that we´re gonna be selling just on my upcoming European tour, so I´ve gotta get that done. I leave in a week and a half to Tampa to go work with Trans Siberian Orchestra in the studio and then when I get back here, it´s just enough time to pack and get ready to go do my European tour. As much as I would´ve loved to come home and just put my feet up for two months, it just hasn´t happened. And of course doing loads of interviews for the W.E.T. album. (laughs)
The TSO album, what time frame for a release are we looking at there?
JSS: I have no idea! They march to the beat of their own drum. When it´s ready and when it´s done, they have their own agenda and they pull me in when they need me and I basically walk away from it not knowing when it will see the light of day. At this point it´s anybody´s guess. I know they´re trying to push things forward a little faster than they have in the past because the last album took something like four years to get out there. I think they´re gonna do it a lot quicker this time around. I´m not privy to that information. I go in when they need me and it´s a great situation to just kinda be a part of.
A thing like that, do you get the music well in advance to listen to or do you hear it when you get there?
JSS: I get it when I get there because they don´t work traditionally. It´s not just “Here´s the song and here are your lyrics! Learn it and then when you come in we´ll see.”. With them it´s more of a story behind it and it´s all about getting into the character. They don´t even want you to hear it on your own at first because they don´t want you to fall into the wrong character or the wrong personality of what they´re gonna be pulling out of you to do the actual song. For them it´s best to listen to it together, explain what the story´s about, explain what the lyrics are about and then put you in into the character that´s gonna be singing that right there and then. That way you capture all that raw emotion right there.Even though you´re at the level you´re at and all the stuff you´ve done through the years, do you ever feel pressure coming into a situation like that? You´re supposed to perform at your best and come up with stuff.
JSS: No, because I wouldn´t put myself in a situation that I knew I couldn´t do. Usually the people that are hiring me or pulling me into situations like that, know I can do it. It´s a confidence on both ends and whether it takes 20 minutes to do or a month to do, we know we´re gonna get it because we have the confidence in each other. I eliminate that pressure just based on that alone. I know I´ll eventually get it. They don´t want me to sing it the way Jeff Scott Soto would sing it and they don´t want me to sing it the way Jeff Scott Soto sings for Journey would sing it. They want me to sing it the way Jeff Scott Soto would sing it for Trans Siberian Orchestra and that´s something that´s a challenge for me because it puts me into another stratosphere career wise and another challenge for me as opposed to what I would naturally do if you give me a song and I start humming along to it and then sang it in the studio. It´s a completely different animal.
Right. Last time I talked to you was at the beginning of last year and we talked a bit about Dave Meniketti. Anymore plans on that? We talked about you wanting to take that collaboration further and maybe do an album or something?
JSS: Yeah, you know, every time I see him or see those guys, they´re as busy or busier than me. It´s all really a matter of timing and at this point I´ve got my hands full, so I´m not looking to fill my plate anymore. If a situation is presented to me, than I can look at it, but at this point I´m not actually looking to go find more work. (laughs) My back´s against the wall as it is.
That´s good though.
JSS: It´s a great thing! I´m not complaining in any way.
As I said last time, I see you and Meniketti as being two of the really great voices out there and you worked with him on your latest solo album.
JSS: Yeah, he did a solo on one of the songs.You and him singing together would be pretty damn cool.
JSS: I love the guy and I have a huge admiration for him, both musically and personally and I would love nothing more if we could do something together at some point.You´ve worked with a lot of people, different bands and artists, is there anyone you´ve always wanted to work with that would be a dream come true?
JSS: Yeah and I don´t know if it would be something that I´m doing in my own personal career, I think it´s more of a bucket list, but I would love to work with Prince. That guy is, as far as I´m concerned, beyond genius as far as what he´s left us in terms of music and creativity. Just as a personality of not having any boundaries, any walls or any barriers musically, he was one that just took risks and especially going against the grain of what people expected of him. Just when you think “Ok, this is what he´s gonna be doing now.”, he turns and does something else and he was able to make it successful. I´ve kinda followed those footsteps in a lot of ways and it has bit me in the foot sometimes because I´m not at the level of that and I don´t have the stature or even the management team or the kinda people behind me that can help kinda force feed that situation. If I experiment too much, my fans will go “Eh, I don´t think so!”. (laughs) But he´s very inspiring in that sense and I would love to see what would come up collaborating with him.Writing music, do you have to set yourself in a certain mode and sit down to write or do you get ideas flowing through your head constantly?
JSS: These days I don´t have the constant flow of things unless I´m actually working on something particular. It´s mainly because my plate is so full and the next thing I´m working on is coming up immediately after I´m done with the present thing I´m working on. It´s not like I have two or three months where I´m not doing anything or I´m not doing anything musically and then I´m just gonna say “Yeah, today I´m gonna write a song or I have an idea that I wanna put down.”. I really only come up with ideas or start working on ideas when it´s gonna be for something. It´s just because I´m so swamped with work and there´s no real down time anymore. Again, it´s a good thing and a bad thing. It would be great to just keep churning out songs and keep creative, but on the other hand I just don´t have the time or the mental capacity for it at the moment.Doing all this work, is that something that has increased over the last couple of years?
JSS: Yeah, it certainly increased. I´ve gotten more awareness in the past 10 years than what I had in my 20 years previous, when I was starting my career. I´m not one to just rest on my laurels. I don´t just say “Well ok, I´ve had a nice run here and I´m just gonna sit back and collect on it.”. As far as I´m concerned, when the iron is hot you gotta keep striking it. Even if they get too busy, I realize that that´s the best time to keep striking it because once you walk away and they forget about you, it´s kinda hard to get back in there.What was the Queen Extravaganza thing like?
JSS: It was a lot of fun and it was a great experience and I´m glad I did it, but it wasn´t for me as far as continuing to do it annually because there are too many other things that I´m already committed to that I still have on my plate and that I want to do. It was just a fun experience and a great thing to do. It was a great band and it was an honor to work alongside with Roger and making it happen. In reality it´s a cover band and I have other things I need to be doing besides doing cover songs for months on.
Is it supposed to be an annual thing?
JSS: Well, they just finished the tour last week, I believe, and I think they´re going back out in the summertime at some point, so they plan on it being a regular thing and they´re planning on taking it to Europe. It´s gonna continue going. I think at some point I´d like to do it again and do another run with them but if people just expect the lineup that is already there… again, if you walk away from something and they´ve forgotten about you, there´s no point in coming back. We´ll see.
SAS then? Is that like a covers band?
JSS: It´s a covers band but the band is basically a big revolving door of singers and Spike, the keyboard player from Queen, he brings in different singers from different walks of life and when he books a show, he´s got like six singers in the course of the evening and they´re basically singing hits or things that people know them from. The band is essentially a covers band covering the songs of the artist that they hire. I don´t really have the same name as some of the people they bring up on there, so I end up doing a lot of Queen songs through the course of the night just through my association with Quuen.
Didn´t you do a gig in Sweden last year?
JSS: Yeah, we did a gig in Gothenburg. A corporate gig.
Is it a lot of corporate gigs?
JSS: Oh god yeah! When I was living primarily in London, I did a lot more with them. We´d go all over Europe and even in the US. We did a gig in Iceland and we were all over the place.
Well paid?
JSS: Well, you don´t fly half way around the world unless they´re well paid. (laughs) You can get shitty paid gigs in your backyard. (laughs)
So true. Final thing. Have you ever thought of putting together the story of your life in a book or something like that?
JSS: Yes and no. I would rather there be more of a story to fill if I´m doing an autobiography, I don´t think there´s enough interest. If I did something like “The Dirt” or something, you have to have interest out there to even get publishers involved to make it a real book. At this point, what we have done is there´s a guy in Germany that released kind of a chronicle of my career and it was so well done in the sense of digging up all the demos and sessions and all of the things that I´ve done in my life and put it in this book, but it was only in German and it was a limited release. We took the idea of what he did and we had it translated to English and we filled all the missing pieces and all the things that weren´t in the book and it turned into quite the undertaking actually. We´ve (Jeff with tour manager) been working on it for the past three years and we´re possibly releasing it this year finally. Every year I get something new and good and fun and interesting to add to it, but what we´re planning on doing is to release it just as an E-book. If we release it that way we can always update it, rerelease the update. That way we can keep it an ongoing thing, but it´s gonna be much more than a Wikipedia where they only put the main things in. It´s unbelievable when I look at all the things that I´ve done on there. The book is huge! But again, it´s more of a chronicle of my career. It does have some stories and there´s a lot of additions from people I´ve worked with. I´ve got people all through the walks of my career putting little portions in it. Everything from high school bands to whatever. It´s really cool in that sense, but it´s not an autobiography where I talk about the affairs and drug abuse and all that kinda shit. (laughs)Looking forward to it. Have you heard that Yngwie is writing his own book?
JSS: I think somebody told me about it. That´ll be interesting to see, how much he mentions me. (laughs)
He did a radio show here, but didn´t really tell anything and I think a lot of people were really disappointed. JSS: Too bad. I´d love to do something like that! I think that´s next on my bucket list thing, to someday get into deejaying or having my own show or something. Everybody always tells me “What a great voice you have! You have such a voice for broadcasting.” and I´d love to do it. There´s nothing more fun than to shoot the shit and talk about music and talk about funny situations in life. I think it would be great.Absolutely! Jeff Scott Soto, the radio DJ.JSS: (laughs) Well, Ian Haugland made a great career out of it. I was actually talking to Ian about it when I was in Stockholm a few weeks ago. He was telling me how he got into it and I said “Man, I gotta get into that!”.
Definitely. Thank you so much Jeff. Always a pleasure talking to you.
JSS: You got it brother! Thank you./Niclas

fredag 15 februari 2013

Det har länge snackats om att Chad Smith i Red Hot Chili Peppers finns med på bilden. Det gör han inte, men han påstås synas på en outtake från samma tillfälle. Om det stämmer vetefan för killen som pekas ut är inte direkt lik herr Smith.Hur som haver, nedan berättar Chad om tillfället och bekräftar dessutom att det var en KISS-show och inte Rush, som påståtts genom åren. Saxat från Modern Drummer: "MD: What was your first concert?
Chad: Blue Oyster Cult, in 1974, when I was thirteen. I wasn’t a huge fan, but I was going to the concert because Kiss was supposed to open for them. I was a big Kiss fan at this time. Brad used to give me shit, but I was like, “They breathe fire, and the drumkit goes forty feet in the air!” I bought all that—hook, line, and sinker.
My buddy Brian and I were huge, die-hard Kiss fans. So we go to Pine Knob Music Theatre—where years later I rehearsed with this band—but Michael Quatro, Suzie Quatro’s brother, ended up opening up. It wasn’t quite Kiss. But it was my first concert and I dug the whole experience—the coolers, the girls…. It’s 1974 and I’m like, “This is awesome.”
Then Kiss came to Cobo Hall on May 16, 1975, and this was back when you had to write in to the Cobo Hall box office for tickets. Your mom gives you a check and you send it in. So Brad tells me that this friend of ours, Jackie Davidson, who used to go to every show—when he saw that Eric Clapton was coming he wrote this little note with his ticket request: “Please, I would like tenth row, on the aisle.” “Yeah, really? Okay, it’s worth a try.” So I write, “Dear ticket lady, Kiss is my favorite band. Please, if it’s possible, can I have four seats, tenth row, on the aisle?” Two weeks later—twelfth row, on the aisle! How awesome is that?! This was like two months before they were coming, and it felt like an eternity. My mom was like, “Okay, but you have to be really good.” I had to try not to get grounded for two weeks.
So we go to the famous Cobo Hall. And if you look at the back of the Kiss Alive album, there’s these two kids holding a homemade Kiss poster. And me and Brad and Brian and Jackie Davidson were all sitting in the twelfth row, and in the sixteenth row we see Fin Costello taking pictures of those kids. We watched the whole thing. So the album comes out, and that’s the back cover. I’m like, “I was there!” My friends are like, “B.S.!” “No, I swear!” And since then I’ve had people write to me, “I heard you were in the picture at Cobo Hall,” and I’m like, “No, no, I wasn’t in the picture—but I saw it happening….” /Niclas